Three Ages is a 1923 Buster Keaton comedy where Buster falls in love repeatedly throughout time. This was the first full length feature he wrote and directed, although it’s only an hour, so not that full length, really.
This is basically the same story (Buster Keaton is in love, and must win his girl from the clutches of some nefarious rival) told three times across three different ages (hence the title), so we get Buster first as a caveman, then as a Roman, and finally as an American.
This is pretty good, with some pretty wonderful gags here and there, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as a lot of his other films. Maybe partly because this is parodying a film I’ve never seen (DW Griffith’s Intolerance), but also because a lot of it feels like remixes of stuff from other (better) Buster Keaton films.
Then again it does feature a stop motion Buster Keaton riding a stop motion dinosaur, and I wasn’t really expecting to ever see that.
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Notes
1. I watched this on amazon, but the screenshots come from youtube.
2. This was Buster Keaton’s first full length feature as a director/writer/etc. His first as an actor was The Saphead (1920).
3. Which is another film I’ve not seen.
4. Buster Keaton’s second full length feature as writer/directer/etc was Our Hospitality, released on November 19th 1923.
5. So I better watch that soon make sure I just about watch it in the week of release (plus or minus one hundred years).
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Film Information
Title: Three Ages
Director: Buster Keaton
Year: 1923
Duration: 61 minutes
Watch: youtube